Following Boids

By Catherine on April 23, 2011

The most exciting thing I’ve been working on recently is programming with MIT Media Lab’s Processing. The video quality of this is pretty bad – it was shot with my phone – but if you look for a mass of white flickering specks you might get the idea. Those specks, or boids, move relative to each other, which is supposed to mimic the motion of a flock of birds or a herd of cows. More specifics about boids and flocking as told by the creator of the algorithm, Craig Reynolds, can be found here.

I based all of this off a sketch found here by someone who went by MisterCrow in 2007 (sometimes I realize why people think the internet is so bizarre). In MisterCrow’s sketch, the boids ultimate goal was the position of the mouse. I combined that sketch with a motion tracking sketch in the jMyron computer vision library; this works with a video camera to track motion. Basically, it measures the differences in white that the camera detects to determine if something is moving. Instead of following your mouse, the boids would follow movement.

For crit (this was a 3D studio project), I projected the processing sketch and used the input of a video camera as motion. The only problem is that I couldn’t make the sketch any bigger; something about the camera resolution wouldn’t allow it. I know the camera resolution isn’t 320 x 240 px, so I’m not sure what’s up.

Anyway, an update.

xoxo
Catherine

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From Chez Schmidt to Depicted

By Catherine on December 11, 2009

Hello all. Just wanted to announce that I’m 75% sure that I want to change the name of this blog from “Chez Schmidt” to “depicted” – lowercase, yes. Is that too annoying?

The reasons for the change are

  1. Chez Schmidt is hard to say in real life if you don’t speak French. Actually the alliteration makes it hard even if you do speak French.
  2. It’s confusing if you don’t know French (“what does ‘chez’ mean?”).
  3. Even in French, it sort of implies that this blog is a house.
  4. I think I’d like to start using my first name (horror of horrors!) on this blog, as I use it everywhere else on the internet, and increasingly in real life. I could start signing my posts as Catherine, but then the title would make even less sense

I like “depicted” but I’m not wild about it. I think it’s clever, but it might be just clever in a bad way. It could even be a little too bland.

The other option I had was a little worse though – “dépeint”, the French for “depicted”. I like it better in theory, but I think to non-French speakers it’s just annoying.

Thoughts, suggestions? Should I just revert? Oh dear reader(s), please give me your input.

xoxo
Catherine

P.S. I know, I know, how weird is that.

P.P.S. Input on the header also appreciated.

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Research and Raphael

By Catherine on December 11, 2009

So I’ve been doing a little bit of art research for my college essay. I was trying to find which Raphaels I liked in the Louvre (pretentious much?) and I found this one.

Everything about this is gorgeous. Her expression, her skin, her posture, the background, the shadows. It’s all absolutely gorgeous.

I forgot how much we owe to these guys; Raphael, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo and the like. Their work is still beautiful and still relevant.

In modernism we discussed the nature of beauty. Art is all about beauty, even the ugly art (how can you have ugly without beautiful?). That we can be floored by beauty is a testament to the power of beautiful art. That we seek beauty is a testament to art as a whole.

Another one of my all-time favorites.

A sketch of Da Vinci’s with the Virgin and St. Anne. Mary’s face is indescribable here. That expression – it’s tender, it’s divine, it’s knowing. This face has haunted me ever since I saw it in person at 11. This piece is beyond an inspiration for me; it’s part of why I make art at all.

Okay, I’m ending the ramble here. But I am curious about what all you intelligent people have to say. What role does beauty play in art, and vice versa? Is purely beautiful art still relevant today? Do beautiful images, all on their own, have merit? Etc, etc, etc.

xoxo
Schmidt

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Gouache Among Other Things

By Catherine on December 4, 2009

Hey there.

So I’ve been trying out gouache recently. I’ve never used it before, and I thought it’d be neat to potentially do that D&P project in.

I am sick and tired of doing self portraits, but people are my favorite and it’s not as though I have a live-in model on hand.

Preliminary sketch – the reflection in my window:

That trapizoidal thing is a lampshade. Doesn’t look like me and the hair is redic, but the posture is better than on this one:

Combo of charcoal pencil and gouache. That stuff is seriously tough to work with. Good for blocks of color, but tough as heck to blend! And so chalky – when it dried, the charcoal pencil showed up really well.

Loved the dramatic lighting; love that in general. Maybe a few of the portraits in the project will be something similar to this – crazy lighting, telling pose/action, that kind of thing. A sense of place.

Keep in mind, this is a sketch, not any serious work. The messiness is kind of fun in my opinion, but not really tolerable in something finished.

I do think that the charcoal pencil and the gouache is a pretty good combo, and looks like a promising option for the project.

Now, I need to find faces/people! I’m probably doing about 12, and I want them to be very very random. I really want to get some complete strangers in there – that is, if I have the guts to go up to them like a creeper and take a picture of them (no, I won’t have them come in to sit. Way too awks). It would be pretty sweet though.

It’s definitely still a little bit too sketchy as a concept. Usually I have the end product fully formed in my head, and I’m really not getting that quite yet. I’m going to forge on regardless.

xoxo
Schmidt

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Moleskine (Back From the Dead)

By Catherine on December 2, 2009

Hello all.

So I haven’t posted in forever. That’s a bad thing. One of my goals with this blog was to keep it current.

One of the reasons is that I’ve been busy, mais bon, so have we all. The other reason is that things have been very dry art-wise lately.

p>Tonight I’ve got doodles from the Escape Into Life Moleskine Project moleskine that I’ve started.

At the risk of sounding like a white person, using this little moleskine has been infinitely more fun than using any other similar journal. I can’t quite explain it; it’s just so neat and clean and classy. I’m debating whether or not to paint the cover. Maybe when I’m done.

The only downside is that the paper is terrible for watercoloring (even though it said it was heavy enough for guache, another water-based medium). It’s not porous enough. Also, the paper is tinged yellow, which affects the colors.

I’m going to keep it very informal with this guy. Nothing too weighty. Just pretty pictures (and yes, I realize that last one is kind of a fail).

And then some weirder ones (why not?).

I love those little bat-wing corners!

Yes, that is U of-windy-city admissions letter, and electrical tape.

In other news, I’ve started a tumblr for more random, incomplete, and un-art related thoughts. Mostly I’m just curious to see what tumblr’s all about – it’s really innovative. If you’ve got one, follow me/give me the link!

Don’t worry about my moving this blog though, as I’m too entrenched in blogger to switch now.

As for my latest projects (this is a very rambling post) I’ve got something brewing in D&P; though as those actually in D&P can attest, I’m way behind schedule. It’s going to be a little different, and involve watercolor and ink, and be about Seattle. I’m having a hard time figuring out how to articulate that sense of place though. I’m probably going to do a series of portraits…but there’s something missing. I’ll put up any good sketches/progress that I have.

That’s all for tonight folks. Thanks for putting up with the rambling/my sporadic posting.

xoxo
Schmidt

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3 paintings, 5 days: Day 4/5 + Grand Finale

By Catherine on October 31, 2009

Hey people. So I finished everything at 2pm yesterday. I’ve posted some of these before, but I want to post them all together so that you guys get an idea of the series as a whole. Frankly some of these guys are a little lost (read: terrible) without the others.

The last two are “Midriff” and “Hair,” respectively. Yeah, “Hair” is kind of a tenuous title.

I had a hard time deciding about “Hair” because it includes a face. My other option would’ve been been a shot of a back. I think the back idea would’ve fit better with the intimacy theme, but would have turned out worse as an individual painting.

And here’s why the nose is so oddly large: the angle. Seriously, there was no way I could get around it.

I still think the best of these is “Clavicle”. It captures the idea best, and is more anonymous than the others. I was going for a kind of generic-ness in these paintings. Of course, I ruined that with “Hair”. Woops.

Comments/feedback appreciated, especially concerning the style, concept, and articulation.

xoxo
Schmidt

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3 paintings, 5 days: Day 2/3 whatever

By Catherine on October 29, 2009

Hey guys, here’s the finished (somewhat) “Knees”:

I’m not crazy about it. Halfway through I started to hate it, so I rushed to finish it, and then here we are. I’ll probably submit it like this, but I might go back and fix it later. I was debating between two concepts for this one…and I think I actually like the one I didn’t pick better. Oops, too late.

Whatever. Onwards and upwards.

Here’s the latest (as of this morning:

This one is called “Midriff” (yes, it really is). I love how you can see the reference photo.

Anyway, a bunch of stuff on this one is wonky – the proportions on the hands are all wrong, blah blah blah.

I’ll fix it. Anyway I’m much more excited about this one. It’s so warm!

Other than that everything is falling apart. No biggie.

Feedback appreciated.

xoxo
Schmidt

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